Large pieces of fabric material, such as airbags, often require complicated holding fixtures during a stitching operation on commercial sewing machines to insure economical and cost productive stitching of the material. Many of these larger pieces of fabric material require stitching in a circular pattern, such as on an airbag, to form a circumferential or perimeter stitch around the desired piece. For example, an airbag requires a circumferential stitch around its perimeter to close the bag.
Many of the common fixtures for holding these larger fabric pieces, such as conventional clamps and other holdings fixtures, make peripheral and circumferential stitching difficult. It would be advantageous if a simple mechanical apparatus having few linearly moving parts could be used for holding large pieces of fabric, such as airbags, and moving the piece into the stitching station during a stitching operation while also facilitating circumferential stitching around the piece. Such apparatus would also require a means for holding the fabric piece tightly.